Automatic exposure control apparatus

1. An automatic exposure control apparatus comprising: skin color extracting means for extracting a skin-colored portion signal from an input video signal; focus condition detecting means for detecting a focus condition of the skin-colored portion and providing a focus condition signal; and exposure controlling means, operable only in response to the skin-colored portion being detected in an in-focus condition, for controlling exposure so that an exposure of the skin-colored portion signal is appropriate, wherein said exposure controlling means controls exposure so that an average luminescence level of the skin colored portion is between 55 IRE and 75 IRE.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, further comprising a color separating circuit for deriving a color signal from the input video signal.

3. The apparatus of claim 2, further comprising means for processing a luminescence signal from the input video signal and means for modulating the color signal and luminescence signal to provide a composite video signal.

4. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein said focus condition detecting means includes means for detecting a high frequency component of the skin-colored portion signal.

5. An improved camera having an automatic exposure control system comprising: a lens system for providing an image of an object scene; an image sensor device for providing an input video signal of the object scene; skin color extracting means for extracting a skin-colored portion signal from the video signal; means for determining whether a target object of the camera is a human skin portion or not based on said skin-colored portion signal; and exposure control means, operable in response to said determining means determining that the target object of the camera is a human skin portion, for controlling exposure so that an exposure of the human skin is appropriate.

6. The camera of claim 5 further includes a color separating circuit for deriving a color signal from the input video signal.

7. The camera of claim 6 further including means for processing a luminescence signal from the input video signal and means for modulating the color signal and luminescence signal to provide a composite video signal.

8. The camera of claim 5, wherein the exposure control means determines if an average luminescence level of the skin colored portion is between 55 IRE and 75 IRE.

9. The camera of claim 5, further comprising focus condition detecting means for detecting a focus condition of the target object based on the input video signal and providing a focus condition signal representative of the target object, wherein said determining means determines the target object based on the focus condition signal in addition to the skin-colored portion signal.

10. The camera of claim 9, wherein said determining means determines that the target object is a human skin portion when the focus condition signal representative of the target object indicates a focus condition of the skin-colored portion.

11. The camera of claim 9, wherein said focus condition detecting means includes means for detecting a high frequency component of a video signal of the target object.

12. An improved camera having an automatic exposure control for creating images of objects having human skin colorations, comprising: a lens system for providing an image of an object; means for converting the image into color signals and a luminance signal; means for processing the color signals to provide color difference signals; color means for processing the color difference signals to determine if they are within a range of skin color; filter means for processing the luminance signal to extract a high frequency component signal; means for detecting when the high frequency component signal is representative of skin color in response to the color means and filter means; means for detecting a focus condition from the high frequency component representative of skin color; means for detecting an average level of the luminance of the high frequency component signal and providing an average luminance level signal; and computer means for verifying from the focus condition and average luminance level signal that the image of the object includes a skin color in focus, and providing an exposure control signal to the automatic exposure control.